Third-Party Data Services

Oasis provides custom
tools for accessing a few specific image and catalog
services but for general archive access we rely on data
servicE interfaces created by others. These services are
written as standard CGI / HTML-form applications with no
involvement between their development and that of Oasis.

The connection to Oasis usually comes on the results
pages for these "third-party" services in the form of
"Oasis Links". An Oasis Link is essentially an indirect
URL; the data supplier's URL wrapped in Oasis applet URL.
Essentially, this tells the Oasis running on the user's
machine to go and get the data referenced and display
it.

This data goes directly from the data supplier and the
user's machine; IRSA is not involved. Nor is IRSA
involved in any way in the construction of the above
results pages, which is why the term "third-party" is
used.

There is also a mechanism for a service provider to
optionally allow the user's instance of Oasis to aid in
filling out forms (e.g. to define the area of
interest to be that of the current image displayed by
Oasis). However, since this involves a much closer
coupling of the service and Oasis than the Oasis Links it
is used less frequently.

For more information on the underlying technology, see
the documentation on Oasis
Links.